Ashish Fernando talks with Jason Barnard about AI innovation in global education. Ashish Fernando, CEO and Founder of iSchoolConnect and EDMO, was the first edtech partner with Google Cloud and created an AI-powered platform that matches students with the right institutions. He is a member of the Forbes Council and speaks on education, AI, international student life, leadership, and future skills. Ashish talks about his journey, from earning a full MBA scholarship to creating an AI-driven platform that supports millions of students in pursuing international education. He also shares valuable insights on securing investments, and the philosophy of prioritizing employee well-being to ensure business success. Having faced the difficulties of applying to US universities, Ashish leveraged his viral YouTube success to launch a mission-driven business. In this episode, he discusses how his perseverance and focus on customer-centric innovation helped him navigate investor skepticism and build a thriving edtech company. What you’ll learn from Ashish Fernando 00:00 Ashish Fernando and Jason Barnard 00:58 Ashish Fernando’s Brand SERP 01:10 What is Missing in Ashish Fernando’s Knowledge Panel? 02:41 What Does Ashish Think About His Own Personal Brand? 02:55 Where Has Ashish’s Focus Been Lately When it Comes to His Personal Brand? 03:47 What is the Inspiration Behind Ashish’s iSchoolConnect, EDMO, and His Career? 03:53 What Inspired Ashish to Pursue an MBA in the US? 04:06 What Challenges Did Ashish Face When Trying to Afford an MBA in the US? 04:42 What Was the Outcome of Ashish’s Efforts After Three Years of Research? 04:50 Where Did Ashish Go After Receiving a Full-Ride Scholarship for His MBA? 04:56 What is the Title of Ashish’s First Video on YouTube? 05:09 Why Did Students Start Reaching Out to Ashish for Advice? 06:38 How Did Ashish Transition so Quickly to Becoming a Leader and Start Looking for Investors? 08:01 How Did Ashish Leverage His First Investor Beyond Just Their Recommendations to Friends? 09:56 What Did Ashish Find About His Team and His Role in Driving the Company After Getting Investors? 12:29 Why Do Profitable Bootstrapped Businesses Get Less Recognition Than Funded Startups? 13:01 What Do Founders Need to Prioritize in Their Businesses? 13:39 Which Industry Was the First to Be Hit When COVID-19 Hit? 15:06 How Can Founders Bootstrap Their Businesses? 17:05 How Did Ashish’s Failures Along the Way Help Him Move Forward? 18:43 How Can Unexpected Product Pivots Lead to Greater Business Opportunities During Crisis? 19:33 How Does Prioritizing Employee Wellbeing Drive Sustainable Business Success? This episode was recorded live on video January 14th 2025 https://youtube.com/live/iJu7gGnsGAI Links to pieces of content relevant to this topic:https://youtu.be/ayI1T5KRwm4?si=UFrUi8WUs8wyX1ykhttps://youtu.be/AiFq3TcvyyQ?si=CbaedyrKCxKx9jXDhttps://youtu.be/JDS2pljhObQ?si=Mb8PnutgZjtheP5VAshish Fernando Transcript from AI Innovation in Global Education - Fastlane Founders with Ashish Fernando [00:00:00] Narrator: Fastlane Founders and Legacy with Jason Barnard. Each week, Jason sits down with successful entrepreneurs, CEOs and executives and get them to share how they mastered the delicate balance between rapid growth and enduring success in the business world. How can we quickly build a profitable business that stands the test of time and becomes our legacy, A legacy we're proud of. Fastlane Founders and Legacy with Jason Barnard. [00:00:31] Jason Barnard: Hi everybody. Welcome to another Fastlane Founders and Legacy. I'm here with a quick hello and we're good to go. Welcome to the show, Ashish Fernando. [00:00:45] Ashish Fernando: I think that's the nicest way I've ever started a podcast. Good. Thank you so much, Jason. [00:00:51] Jason Barnard: Brilliant. Yeah, I think the singing is something I do quite well and it's a really nice way to introduce people, but a lot of people are introduced through Google. What happens when we search your name? We get this result and the Knowledge Panel, the thing outlined in blue on the right hand side, which is Google's understanding of the facts about you. It's got some photos, it's got some of your social media profiles, doesn't have a description, doesn't have much information about you, but that's a really good start. Google understands who you are, but it doesn't understand very much about you. Then I thought I'll look in Google Learn About and I don't know if you've looked at Google Learn About and you're doing really well there. Google Learn About is Google's research tool and for entrepreneurs like yourself and like myself, due diligence is going to be done this way in the future. We will ask AI assistants and agents such as Google Learn About, what do you think of Ashish Fernando? And here we have a reasonable explanation, a reasonable representation of you with some interesting questions that I'm going to ask later on. Then I dug deeper and asked specifically about you in the context of iSchoolConnect and EDMO and I got this, which is brilliant and it's absolutely nailed. The questions I need to ask you during this interview, so I've cheated. I use Google Learn About but I had to be quite specific about you. In Google Learn About, Google Gemini, Google Search, you aren't sufficiently famous or notable for Google to instantly tell me all about you. I have to actually dig down. How do you feel about your own personal brand? Do you feel you're out there enough or do you feel you can do more? [00:02:33] Ashish Fernando: Interesting question, by the way. I learned about Learn About right now, so I'm going to go research a little bit more. Yeah, but I used to be obsessed about cloud scores and social cloud, not just personal cloud, but also the company's cloud. Right. So we did a lot of that work and research initially, but I feel right now a lot of my focus has just been LinkedIn. I think it's a great place to start to do some work and everything I'm doing there starts showing up on Google kind of trying to find ways of, of doing that. But yeah, LinkedIn is primarily what I've been using till now to grow my personal cloud. [00:03:18] Jason Barnard: Right. Okay. I mean, my guess with AI is that we're going to be going to ChatGPT, Google Learn About, Perplexity as assistants and saying, what do you think of this person and their opinion? And it's an opinion the machine will be giving an opinion about people is going to be absolutely key to the future for personal branding for entrepreneurs like ourselves, but also for our company. But the question today is iSchoolConnect and EDMO and your career. What was your inspiration? [00:03:48] Ashish Fernando: Yeah, that's a great question. You know, I Jason, in like 10 years ago, the MBA bug bit me and I was like, I want to do my MBA in the U.S. you know, I want to travel, learn about people. Business is about being global. So I didn't want to be stuck in India. So when I got on a plane and came to the U.S. everything changed for me. And that's because I come from a financial background. My family wasn't really, you know, ready to spend 75, 100,000 a year on an MBA in the US and that was just not going to happen. And taking that big a loan for my education did not seem like the right thing to do. Right. So I did a lot of my own research. I went to consultants. I failed, they failed. And it just wasn't the right thing. And then after three years of consistent research, I actually got five offers, out of which on four I got scholarships and one out of those was a full ride. So I went to Bentley on 100% scholarship. 10 month MBA, started telling my story on YouTube and I created my first video which was how I got to the US on 100% scholarship. Went viral. I think in a couple of weeks I hit a million views on it and students started reaching out to me, asking for advice and guidance on how I did this. Right? And that's what turned into a business. So I was working for an employer back then and I told him, listen, I have to do this. Look at how many people need help, how many students globally need help with finding the right fit. And that's how I went about. [00:05:33] Jason Barnard: So like a lot of entrepreneurs, you lucked into a business opportunity through a lot of hard work. [00:05:42] Ashish Fernando: Yeah, you know, I. Yes, I'd slightly tweak that. I feel like, you know, once you're persistent at something, it feels like luck. But a lot of times it's just opportunity meeting persistence. Right. [00:05:55] Jason Barnard: I put inverted common around the lucked into because it is that thing is, people say to me, oh, you're working in. I was working in cartoons before. Now I work in managing personal brands and corporate brands in AI and Google. And they say, that's a brilliant job. You lucked into it. And you go, no, I didn't. I found the opportunity, I saw the opportunity, I identified it and then I was consistent. And that's not luck. [00:06:19] Ashish Fernando: You're right. Yes, I saw the double inverted. So that's why I was like, I know this is coming because you're an entrepreneur. You know that like when you, when you become successful and suddenly a lot of people around you start saying, oh, you are lucky. Yeah. So. [00:06:32] Jason Barnard: And you switch very quickly to become a leader and looking for investors. How did that happen? [00:06:37] Ashish Fernando: Yes, because, you know, especially when you're in a consumer business with students like you, you're talking getting at least 20 million hits a year on your website. It's not possible, unfortunately, to bootstrap that kind of a company. Right. You could do it. You'll have a small boutique business. Then you probably help like 10, 20 students a year. No, I was thinking of a business that scales globally.